BaL 08.02.25 - Mendelssohn: Piano trio 1

[Pulcinella]

1500
Building a Library
Katy Hamilton chooses her favourite version of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor

Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49, was written in 1839. Along with the famous Octet it is one of his most popular chamber works. When fellow-composer Robert Schumann reviewed the work he declared Mendelssohn to be "the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the brightest musician, who most clearly understands the contradictions of the age and is the first to reconcile them."

Presto listing here:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/39716--mendelssohn-piano-trio-no-1-in-d-minor-op-49/browse

The BBC MM offering (Volume 20, Number 2) is a Cadogan Hall Proms performance on 24 August 2009 by Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, and Dénes Várjon.

[richardfinegold]

Listening to the new Bell-Denk-Isserlis currently as stated in the thread on that release. My favorites are the Suk Trio, Kalichstein-Laredo-Rose, and the Swiss Piano Trio on SACD

[MickyD]

Does anyone have a HIPP recording? I have the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio and see there is also a version by the admirable Tobias Koch which I'd like to hear.

[Darloboy]

BaL's programming is sometimes really annoying. The Mendelssohn Piano Trios were untouched for the first 43 years of the programme's existence. Then Jeremy Sams did a programme on Piano Trios 1 & 2 in May 2000 (Stern, Rose & Istomin were first choice). Then in May 2015 Harriet Smith did a programme on Piano Trio No. 1 (Julia Fischer, Muller-Schott & Gilad first choice - I've made a note that there were mentions of Alte Musik Köln's period version and the Van Baerle Trio's recording of the original version).

Less than 10 years later, with Harriet Smith's programme still available as a podcast, there is now going to be another programme on this piece. Surely once every 20 years (or less) would be more than sufficient for a chamber work like this. Putting it in perspective, the programme hasn't covered the Violin Concerto since 2004; Piano Concerto No. 1 since 1994 or no. 2 since 1986; Symphony No. 2 since 2009; Symphony No. 3 since 2008; the Midsummer Night's Dream music since 2005; the complete String Quartets since 2005; or Elijah since 2012. In my opinion, a programme on any of these works would have been preferable to another programme on this Piano Trio so soon after the last one.

Or even better, they could have done a programme on some music they haven't covered before, such as the String Symphonies; or the Double Piano Concerto; or Songs without Words; or even a survey of Mendelssohn's Lieder.